U19 Volleyball City Championships 2018

All the hard work from the season brought our U19 Volleyball teams to this moment; the Ho Chi Minh SISAC City Championships!

Our girls and boys volleyball teams were excited to compete in the 2018 City Championships and their hard work and determination paid off with both girls teams finishing in 3rd place in their respective tournaments and the boys B team just finishing outside podium position in 4th place. Our teams provide the highlights:

Girls A Team

BIS student Lena Chan provides the championship highlights for the girls A team:

What a game! Many words can be used to describe how we felt that day, including how immensely exhausted we were. However, although we were tired and sore and aching, we absolutely killed the City Championships.

The City Championships was definitely the best way to end the season. Not because it marks the end of the volleyball season, but because we, as a team, played the best we have ever played throughout the short couple months we had. Every set we played had a highlight. From amazing services to (absolutely) breathtaking spikes, we surprised ourselves as much as the opponents! The series of games we played really challenged us as a team to stay motivated and keep the energy and team spirit up high. Our training and investment into this sport has showed through as we climbed up to 3rd place this year (which, by the way, is BIS’s record!).

For the Year 13s, it has been an honour for us to be a part of this volleyball team and we will cherish the memories and skills we have learnt during our time here. We wish the following years the best of luck and are rooting for BIS to continue climbing the ranks!

#RecordBreakers

Girls B Team

Jody Rogers provides the highlights for the girls B team:

After a successful season, the girl’s B team were motivated to defeat other competing volleyball teams at SISAC which was held at AAVN (The American Academy) on the 6th of November. The first City Championship match between BIS and EIS was unexpectedly tough. Their A team were able to secure points however with a strong set of BIS players the haughty competition remained. The game resulted in a very close tie of 18-25 and 25-27 in the second set.

Even though we lost the first match we were still determined and able to beat teams such as AMIS, ABC and TAS. Our three by three player format was very useful when receiving the ball and making more skillful attacks such as the three touch rule. Katrina and Gemma proved to be very proficient with accurate sets for Ela’s and Kristyna’s powerful spikes. BT (Bao Tran), Kimberley and Eunice constantly served uncontrollable balls and ‘bamboozled’ our opponents. Tina and Ines were also stable receivers, steadily controlling the ball with their impressive digs.

It is clear that the team as a whole has progressed well in terms of their volleyball skills, and there is no doubt that some of the team will be playing in the A team in the future. Training sessions were focused and very useful, as well as being a lot of fun, with many hilarious moments.

Overall our team members would say that this season has been an uplifting and memorable experience. We would like to thank Mr. Luke for coaching us and writing insightful reports which allow us to reflect on matches.

Boys B Team

Mr Ali Thom, PE Teacher provides the highlights:

On Wednesday 31st October BIS made the short Halloween trip to ISHCMC to compete in the volleyball city championships.

They were drawn in a tough group alongside hosts ISHCMC and AmIS and would have to play well to ensure progression to the semi-finals.

They started excellently and dug, set and served with confidence in their first game as they defeated AmIS. This set up a clash with ISHCMC in the final group game to determine who would top the group. Despite some excellent play a very tight affair was won by 2 points in each set by ISHCMC. The team still progressed to the semi-finals but as group runners up and would face tough opposition in SSIS.

With some SISAC debutants in the team the BIS boys were slightly overawed in the 1st set of the semi-final, and lost heavily. After some frank discussion the boys were back to their best to win the second set and set up a final set shootout. Agonisingly BIS lost this game by 2 points. Very unlucky.

Onto the 3/4th place playoff vs AAVN. BIS played their best volleyball of the day in the first set winning easily. Unfortunately tiredness, injuries and perhaps complacency cost them the final 2 sets to finish in 4th place.

On a day and a season when they played some excellent volleyball, a lot of lessons were also learned and the end position was maybe frustrating, but a very young team will be better prepared for next year. Congratulations to the U19 volleyball team and thank you for all the hard work this season.